1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automotive vehicles, more particularly to, fluid flow through a throttle body on an engine for automotive vehicles.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, a throttle body on an engine has a throttle plate for controlling the amount of air that flows to the cylinders of the engine. During idle operation of the engine, air is allowed to bypass the throttle plate by flowing through passageways in the throttle body. Typically, a linear drive motor, such as a stepper motor controlled by an on-board computer or electronic control unit, is mounted on the throttle body to meter the amount of air bypassing the throttle plate.
One problem with the current system is that a failure of the stepper motor may cause the engine to surge if a high amount of bypass air flows past the throttle plate during engine idle. Also, the engine may stall if not enough bypass air is allowed to flow during engine idle.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an idle bypass system that will allow a predetermined amount of air to flow past the throttle plate to the intake manifold if a failure of the stepper motor occurs. It is another object of the present invention to provide a low cost idle bypass system.